Alyse Gregory

Alyse Gregory
Born(1884-07-19)July 19, 1884
Norwalk, Connecticut, US
DiedAugust 27, 1967(1967-08-27) (aged 83)
Morebath, Devon, UK
NationalityAmerican-British
Occupation(s)Suffragist, writer
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1924; died 1939)​
FatherJames G. Gregory

Alyse Earle Gregory (July 19, 1882 – August 27, 1967) was an American-British suffragist and writer.[1] Gregory worked as a woman's suffrage advocate in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. She became an editor of the literary magazine, The Dial, and was a published author of novels and essays.

Biography

Alyse Earle Gregory 1904

Gregory was born as Alice Earle Gregory in Norwalk, Connecticut on July 19, 1882.[2][3] Later, she and the family would spell her name as "Alyse."[2] Gregory's father, James G. Gregory, was a doctor and the two had a close relationship.[2] Dr. Gregory was supportive of his daughter even in her most non-conformist ways, which she started displaying at an early age.[4] Gregory ran away from school twice as a young girl, hating the tedium of lessons.[5] Gregory also showed early musical talent and was sent to Paris in 1899 to receive a musical education with famous concert singer Katherine Tanner Fisk.[6][7] For four years she took singing lessons in Paris and in New York City.[8] Gregory disliked singing in public and didn't have the stature for opera singing, so she returned to the United States.[9]

In 1912, Gregory became the leader of the Norwalk Civic League and became involved with worker's rights.[10] Through her experiences in the league came to feel that women's suffrage would help promote labor reforms.[11] Gregory went on to become a key leader in the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA) through which she directed activities such as meetings, plays, and parades alongside Cromwell native Emily Miller Pierson.[12] In 1913, Gregory teamed up with Pierson for a Connecticut state automobile speaking tour to support women's suffrage.[13] She later worked as assistant state organizer for the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association during a referendum on woman suffrage in 1915 and was also active for the cause in the State of New York.[12] Gregory was involved with the National Woman's Party protests (NWP) in New York City.[12] In July 1916, she published a national article about women laborers in The Woman Voter, entitled, "Women and the Garment Workers."[14] In working on the article, she used her abilities to speak Italian and French fluently in order to connect with immigrant labor workers.[15] Gregory also used her fluency with languages during Connecticut woman's suffrage campaigns.[16] She would translate speeches given by Pierson into Italian, French or German.[17] From April to October 1915, Gregory worked with Pierson on suffrage campaigns in New Jersey.[18] In 1919, Gregory protested in Washington, D.C. in favor of woman's suffrage with the National Woman's Party (NWP) and Elsie Hill.[19]

Gregory lived in New York City starting in 1916.[20] Around this time, she began contributing articles to such publications as The Freeman, The New Republic and The Dial.[21] She wrote articles in favor of social justice.[22] Early in 1918, Gregory opened her own tea shop in Greenwich Village and the shop became a gathering place where writers and artists would gather.[23] When her friend, Randolph Bourne died in 1918, Gregory lost a close friend and an "intellectual sparring partner."[24] Also in 1918, Gregory visited Denmark and Scotland, staying in Glasgow with Florida Scott-Maxwell.[25] Gregory moved to Patchin Place in 1921.[20]

While Gregory was living in Greenwich Village, Scofield Thayer was recruiting her to become an editor for The Dial, starting in 1922.[26][27] The offer at The Dial would mean that she would be paid $25 more per week than Gilbert Seldes, the current editor.[28] She eventually accepted. From 1923 to 1925, Gregory worked as the first woman managing editor of The Dial.[29] Her name was first included on the masthead of the magazine in February 1924.[28] While Powys worked for the magazine, she helped keep things on "an even keel."[30]

In 1921, she met writer Llewelyn Powys.[31] Gregory helped expand Powys' literary network and he also relied on her advice as an editor.[32] Initially, Gregory had been against marriage.[33] However, on September 30 1924, Gregory married Powys.[34][35][36] Gregory didn't tell her parents until after the wedding.[37] Two reasons she gave her father for marrying Powys were that he wanted to get married and that his health was poor.[38] In April 1925, Gregory retired from The Dial to move to England with her husband.[39] Powys was involved in persuading her to leave the position.[40] Despite leaving formally, Gregory continued to write literary reviews for The Dial through 1929.[29]

Powys and Gregory both visited Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1926.[30] In 1927, Powys had an affair with Gamel Woolsey.[41] Gregory and her husband visited Palestine in 1928 so Powys could do research for an upcoming book.[42] During this trip, Powys found out that Woolsey had a miscarriage.[41] After returning from Palestine, Woolsey arrived to move near Powys and during this time, Gregory was involved with the affair which she both "encouraged" and "suffered exquisitely."[43] The love triangle between Gregory, Powys and Woolsey was complicated, especially because Gregory believed in free love.[44] Gregory and Powys spent the winter of 1930 in a house in the Berkshire Mountains lent to them by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Eugen Boissevain.[36] After Llewelyn Powys' death from tuberculosis in 1939, Gregory continued to live on the Dorset coast in England.[45]

In 1956, Alyse presented the author Rosemary Manning with a copy of Wheels on Gravel inscribed with a quotation from George Santayana: 'To understand oneself is the classic form of consolation, to elude oneself is the romantic'.[46] In 1957, Alyse Gregory moved into Velthams Cottage, Morebath, Devon.[47] After the sudden death of her landlady on May 12, 1958, Velthams was bought at auction in 1960 by the writer Oliver Stonor, who had known Alyse previously; they were both present at local celebrations in East Chaldon on 7 or 8 May 1945, for the end of the Second World War in Europe, which took the form of a large bonfire near the Five Marys, a local group of prehistoric barrows.

In her last years, many friends visited her, in spite of the rural isolation of Morebath, which had a railway station until 1966. Alyse had long been an advocate of voluntary euthanasia, and planned her own, careful death.[48] She died from a barbiturate overdose on 27 August 1967.[48] Her last visitor on the day of her death was the author Rosemary Manning who described the visit in her autobiography A Corridor of Mirrors.[49]

Writing

Gregory helped turn The Dial into "a first rate magazine of the fine arts," according to E. E. Cummings.[50] As an editor at The Dial, Gregory was considered a "powerful arbiter of literary style."[23] Gregory created a set of general instructions for the editorial department at The Dial which continued to be used after she retired.[51] While she was married to Llewellyn Powys, she edited his works.[52]

Her first published novel was She Shall Have Music (1926) which explored themes of sexual awakening and individual freedom.[53] The story follows the life and intellectual longings of a wealthy young woman, Sylvia Brown, who experiences life in Long Island and Greenwich Village.[54] The New Yorker described She Shall Have Music as a story that that captures the modern speech and mores of her characters.[55] The New Republic wrote that the story had all the elements it needed to be complete, but that it ended up flat and somewhat boring.[56]

King Log and Lady Lea (1929) is a tragic novel that deals with marriage and infidelity and the relationship between a wife and her husband's lover.[57][52] The Bystander called the novel "interesting and peculiar."[58]

Gregory's novel, Hester Craddock (1931), uses many of her own personal experiences to develop the two main characters.[59][60] The story is set in the English Downs and focuses on two sisters and the men in their lives.[61] The eponymous character is neurotic and in love with an artist, who in turn, loves her sister.[62] One of the story's characters was based on her friend, Randolph Bourne where she explores how disability can affect a person's sexuality.[24] The New York Times remarked that in this story, her prose was "sober and economical."[62]

Wheels on Gravel (1938) was a series of eleven published essays on various topics, including marriage.[63][64] Much of the subject matter in the essays was "sensitive, original, if rather bleakly pessimistic."[65]

During World War II Gregory had trouble publishing her work while she lived in England.[66] The Day is Gone (1948) is Gregory's autobiography, published in 1948.[45] The autobiography covers her time working towards woman's suffrage in the United States and her relationship with other literary figures.[67] She also reminisced about individuals who worked with her at The Dial.[68] The autobiography ends just before her marriage to Powys, who she never mentions by name in the book.[69]

In 1973, selections from her journals were published under the title The Cry of a Gull 1923-1948.[70]

Selected bibliography

  • She Shall Have Music (1926) OCLC 6924533
  • King Log and Lady Lea (1929) OCLC 27732505
  • Hester Craddock (1931) OCLC 770050
  • Wheels on Gravel (1938) OCLC 3473640
  • The Day Is Gone (1948) OCLC 676790
  • The Cry of a Gull: Journals, 1923-1948 (1973) ISBN 9780950051079

References

  1. ^ "Alyse Gregory (1884-1967)". Join John Cowper Powys in the USA... Archived from the original on 17 February 2025. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Bennewitz 2020, p. 76.
  3. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 120.
  4. ^ Ozieblo 2002, p. 490.
  5. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 124.
  6. ^ Cather, Willa (1970). The World and the Parish: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews, 1893-1902, Volume 2. U of Nebraska Press. p. 640. ISBN 0803215452. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  7. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 77.
  8. ^ Ozieblo 2002, p. 491.
  9. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 126.
  10. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 81.
  11. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 82.
  12. ^ a b c Bennewitz 2020, p. 72-73.
  13. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 91.
  14. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 95.
  15. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 96.
  16. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 97.
  17. ^ Marino, Kelly (2013-10-01). "Making a Scene for Suffrage in Connecticut: Emily Pierson and Educational Theatrics, 1910-1917". Connecticut History Review. 52 (2): 233. doi:10.2307/44370195. ISSN 0884-7177. Archived from the original on 2023-09-25. Retrieved 2025-07-25.
  18. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 102.
  19. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 106-107.
  20. ^ a b Bennewitz 2020, p. 101-102.
  21. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 106.
  22. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 127.
  23. ^ a b Kuhl 2003, p. 62.
  24. ^ a b Gregory 2020, p. 131.
  25. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 104-105.
  26. ^ Atkins, Marcie Finchum. "Biographical Sketch of Alyse Gregory". Biographical Database of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913-1920. Archived from the original on 2022-07-03. Retrieved 2025-07-26 – via Alexander Street.
  27. ^ Joost 1964, p. 77.
  28. ^ a b Gregory 2020, p. 132.
  29. ^ a b Bennewitz 2020, p. 73.
  30. ^ a b Gregory 2020, p. 133.
  31. ^ Malcolm 1953, p. 155.
  32. ^ Malcolm 1953, p. 155-156.
  33. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 118.
  34. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 75.
  35. ^ "A Marriage of the Arts". The News and Observer. 1925-01-04. p. 26. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ^ a b "Alyse Gregory". Wilson Library Bulletin. 6 (3): 258. 1931 – via Internet Archive.
  37. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 129.
  38. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 128.
  39. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 108.
  40. ^ Joost 1964, p. 85.
  41. ^ a b Gregory 2020, p. 136.
  42. ^ Bennewitz 2020, p. 182.
  43. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 136, 138.
  44. ^ Gregory 2020, p. 138-139.
  45. ^ a b "Alyse Gregory's Long Search for Meaning of Life". The Daily Times. 1948-04-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-07-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ^ Rosemary Manning, 'A Corridor of Mirrors' (London, The Women's Press Ltd., 1987), p.217
  47. ^ "The Powys Society — about Alyse Gregory". The Powys Society. Archived from the original on 2024-06-22. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  48. ^ a b Gregory 2020, p. 145.
  49. ^ Rosemary Manning, 'A Corridor of Mirrors' (London, The Women's Press Ltd., 1987), p.221
  50. ^ Ozieblo 2002, p. 497.
  51. ^ Joost 1964, p. 33.
  52. ^ a b Gregory 2020, p. 140.
  53. ^ Zorn, Gremin (1926-10-17). "Long for the Latest Freedom". The Brooklyn Citizen. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  54. ^ "She Shall Have Music". The Minneapolis Journal. 1926-09-26. p. 19. Retrieved 2025-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  55. ^ "New Books". The New Yorker. 2 (31): 81. 18 September 1926 – via Internet Archive.
  56. ^ "Fiction Notes". The New Republic. 49 (634): 283. 26 January 1927 – via Internet Archive.
  57. ^ "King Log and Lady Lea by Alyse Gregory". The Spectator. 142 (5270): 1026. 29 June 1929 – via Internet Archive.
  58. ^ Straus, Ralph (19 June 1929). "Bohunks, Berries and Broads". The Bystander. 1331 (102): 660 – via Internet Archive.
  59. ^ Ozieblo 2002, p. 503.
  60. ^ Cooper, Ilay (2004). Purbeck Revealed: With Wareham and Lulworth. James Pembroke Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 0954817605.
  61. ^ "Books in Brief". The Nation. 134 (3470): 25. 6 January 1932 – via Internet Archive.
  62. ^ a b "The Undesired Sister". The New York Times. 8 November 1931. pp. 6–7. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  63. ^ R.J.C. (1939-05-05). "Books of Today". Western Morning News. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  64. ^ "Wheels on Gravel". The Guardian. 1939-01-20. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  65. ^ Edwards, A.T.G. (1939-01-12). "Sudden Ups and Downs of a Love-Poet". Western Mail. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  66. ^ Ozieblo 2002, p. 504.
  67. ^ Paschall, Alma (1948-04-16). "'The Day Is Gone' By Alyse Gregory". The Blade. p. 30. Retrieved 2025-07-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  68. ^ Joost 1964, p. 78.
  69. ^ Knickerbocker, Frances (1948-04-11). "Woman's Memories". Chattanooga Daily Times. p. 19. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  70. ^ Kuhl 2003, p. 64.

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